


Liquid Insanity Runs Through Our Veins

by ivanolix



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon - TV, Female Friendship, Female-Centric, Gen, Kink/Cliche Challenge, POV Female Character, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-25
Updated: 2010-02-25
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivanolix/pseuds/ivanolix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gen. Kara Thrace and Ellen Tigh walk into a bar on Modern Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Liquid Insanity Runs Through Our Veins

**Author's Note:**

> (Beta'd by frolicndetour ) You can assume for this AU that instead of finding New Caprica, the Fleet found modern Earth. But I'm handwaving all the Final Five revelations...it's cliche!fic, after all. ;-) Written for The Day of Indulgence 2010.

Kara tried a dozen times that night to “get” the internet, but other than having a hundred barely-clothed boobs pop up in her face, she didn’t understand a thing. She had a feeling she was supposed to be disgusted, but instead she was mostly confused. But she was not going to attend one of those Adaptation-to-Earth classes...no way.

Sam thought it was ironic that he asked for instructions and she hadn’t yet, what with stereotypes and all. But Sam wasn’t here to mock her tonight, and her evil eye threatened destruction to the glowing screen in front of her.

A knock on the door had her suspicious, reaching for her hip and forgetting that she hadn’t earned a weapon’s permit yet. She didn’t slide the chain over, just opened the door the safe two inches.

“Thought I’d find you here.” The smile on Ellen’s face shouldn’t have been so pleased, this time of night, not at her age.

“What the frak do you want?”

“A partner.”

Well, at least they both knew how to get to the point. Kara eyed her slowly, disconcerted as she thought that she remembered that Ellen and Saul were doing well with their marriage.

Ellen chuckled. “Oh come, dear, you know I don’t mean that.”

“Sure I do,” Kara intoned.

“When was the last night out on the town you had?” Ellen raised one blonde eyebrow high.

Kara had to pause.

A half hour later, Ellen had sparkled her way into Kara’s apartment, grinning and making the Colonial-to-Earth transition bar sound damned appealing. She had also whisked Kara off to her closet to help her spruce up, somehow using her simply gleeful anticipation to make Kara’s automatic bristling at the intrusion ease away. There was a challenge in the older woman's eye, and that, combined with Kara's usually denied nostalgia, had Kara sliding down the slippery slope of acceptance.

Kara eventually found herself on her way out the door with Ellen Tigh holding her hand in the crook of her arm. What the hell, it was already better than her night had been so far.

“Since when did I become your go-to girl-friend?” Kara asked, and watched as Ellen lounged in the taxicab with a too-satisfied expression.

“Kara,” Ellen said, waving her hand at her. “Do you really think I could get Laura out drinking? Or Boomer? Or Caprica?”

“No,” Kara had to admit slowly.

“You remind me of my good old days,” Ellen said, tipping her head so her freshly curled hair bounced.

“Right, and that’s a good thing,” Kara snarked under her breath, putting a hand to her forehead and shaking her head slightly.

But despite the slight wobble when she stepped out in the black heels she hadn’t worn in years, Kara inhaled the night air full of lights and sounds that spoke of excitement, and didn’t mind then that Ellen leaned a little on her arm, her blue dress sparkling along with her silver bangles. The night called to them both, promising elation that Kara didn’t doubt it could give.

She gave a mocking glare to the pathetic men who stared at her breasts, arranged to perfection in her little black number tonight, and when Ellen laughed, Kara couldn’t help an answering smirk at her as they walked into the bar.

After a couple shots of ambrosia, true ambrosia at last, Kara was leaning towards Ellen and not minding the other woman’s giggles.

“Normally by now,” Kara confessed with a light in her eyes, “someone would have started a fight.”

“And by someone you mean _you_?” Ellen asked with a carefully straight face.

“Yeah, maybe,” Kara said with a twist of her lips.

The little crinkling around Ellen’s eyes when she grinned made her humor contagious. “See by now, I’d have started the strip tease,” she confessed in half a whisper, eyebrows dancing.

Kara snorted, and took another drink, not sure whether she wanted to imagine that.

“We find our own fun, I suppose,” Ellen said, waving her hand for the bartender. “As long as we have it, that’s what matters.”

“Damn right,” Kara said, sipping down more of the bright green liquid and feeling her limbs loosen as much as her mind.

“Have you tried a Jello shot?” Ellen asked.

“Oh god, not that.” Kara distinctly remembered seeing the red gelatin at one of the Earth orientation meals looking like the innards of a Cylon Raider.

Ellen laughed at her. “Don’t forget how to have fun, Kara.” She waved the shotglass teasingly in front of her.

Kara gave it a sharp look, but it jiggled in an electric blue color, and when Ellen lifted her matching one for a toast Kara couldn’t quite protest.

“To new vices,” Ellen laughed.

“To someday having the willpower to resist obnoxious friends,” Kara said right back at her.

Their glasses tinkled together, and Kara tipped her head back, letting the strange drink wash through her mouth and down her throat in a single move. She swallowed, made a face, but decided it wasn’t that bad.

“Mother/daughter?” guessed the bartender when he brought their next drink.

Kara choked, and Ellen taunted her with a giggle before twirling one of her curls at the young man. “Should I be offended you didn’t think we were sisters.”

He blushed, and didn’t say another word.

“I’d have been such a terrible mother,” Ellen sighed, leaning back in her chair.

Kara didn’t deny it, but looking at Ellen, she wondered if it would be a better kind of terrible than some.

“Bar bets,” Ellen said after a pause, face lightening up again. “We should do bar bets.”

“Why, you ready to lose at something?” Kara grinned.

“Maybe,” Ellen said smirkingly. “For each trick, if we both win, we have to drink a shot. First one to lose has to do that.” She swung her eyes across the bar to where a karaoke machine stood unattended.

A bubble of laughter rose in Kara’s throat, as suddenly she was hit by a dozen memories of old Caprica, good memories, memories she’d worked hard to earn. “You’re on,” she said, slapping her hands on her thighs.

But thirty minutes later, after four more winning shots each and a bet they both miserably failed, Kara groaned as Ellen pulled at her arm.

“You’re going to take it back?” Ellen attempted to demand.

“No, there’s no takebacks,” Kara admitted, stumbling a little as she was dragged towards that dreaded machine.

“No one knows us here, Kara,” Ellen pointed out as they finally made it up the step, and Ellen flipped through the machines controls as if she wasn’t as drunk as Kara.

With the brain cells she had left, Kara realized that that was indeed new, that what she did tonight could not make its way around the Fleet in a sordid tale tomorrow morning. A grin replaced the reluctance at the corner of her mouth, and she realized that this really was fun.

“So, here we go,” Ellen said, tapping the play button until the opening bars started going out. “An Earth song.”

“Wait,” Kara said, needing to speak a little louder than usual. “Helo taught me karaoke, but we always did it where you made up your own words.”

“No, you’re supposed to sing along,” Ellen said, pointing to the screen.

“Oh gods.” But she sure as frak didn’t care that the whole bar was staring at them—and neither did Ellen.

Ellen started swinging her hips as she grabbed the microphone, and suddenly Kara found that she was singing.

If she’d been a little more sober, she might have wondered just how much Ellen thought they probably identified with ‘Last Name’, but the music was seeping into Kara’s mind and she wasn’t paying attention to the lyrics, just warbling out the words with a too-wide smile as they swayed together on the stage, forgetting any audience they might have.

Ellen lost it halfway through the third verse, and Kara wiped tears from her eyes as they managed to giggle their way through the chorus, and they finished with a rising last note that squeaked out of Ellen and made Kara stumble putting the microphone away, feeling like the alcohol and laughter were going to kill her by the end of tonight.

Kara didn’t know how many more drinks they had before one of them called a cab, and she was so tired and high that she didn’t think about why she was helping Ellen out of the car when they stopped at her apartment, or why she stumbled alongside the woman up the stairs until they finally got to the door.

“Gods, that was fun,” Ellen sighed as Kara opened her door.

Kara slipped off her shoes with tender movements, but couldn’t keep the grin off of her face as she closed the door. She moved to the couch with an exaggerated groan, dropping back and closing her eyes. “I can’t believe I did that,” she said, with half an uncontrolled snicker.

She heard Ellen’s answering snicker, and then an “Oof” as she tripped over the edge of the couch and crashed down next to Kara.

“Oh, this couch is too soft,” Ellen moaned, head flopping on Kara’s shoulder.

Kara just mumbled nothing under her breath and leaned her head against the soft cushion on the corner. Ellen sort of crumpled on top of her, and Kara was about to protest that she couldn’t breathe, but a yawn threatened to split her face instead.

Ellen was already snoring by the time Kara had caught her breath, and it made Kara think of sleep. Sleep. She shouldn’t, she should push Ellen over and get up to find a bed.

She didn’t.

She also didn’t hear Sam, coming back from a long drive at 6 am, stopping short at the sight of Ellen snuggled against Kara on the couch, Kara drooling against the sofa cushion as they both looked exhausted. She did hear his “What the frak?” but just frowned, tiredly wiped her face, and fell back to sleep immediately.

Morning regrets would be waiting, but waiting for...well, everyone but Kara and Ellen. Kara had forgotten just how much fun life could be.


End file.
